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New Term - Congestive Heart Failure

Yup, you guessed it. I got a call from my mom yesterday saying something was wrong but she didn't know what. Of course the nurses at the facility have so many people to take care of that it's hard for them to hear what she's saying. So I go leave work (hoping to only be gone for my lunch hour) and probe enough to find out what's going on with my mom.

Confused, hard to breath, pale as a sheet, headache, sleepy - all of the same things we were dealing with before. So I'm thinking that maybe we have issues with high C02 again...we get to the E.R. and spend 8 hours there - running tests, trying to convince mom to stay, waiting, etc.

They come back with a confirmed diagnoses of Congestive Heart Failure. I learn this from the nurse. The attending doctor NEVER came in to talk to me and my mom refused to be admitted. Oh and she also has pneumonia developing again so they gave her a dose of IV antibiotics. Leviquin (sp?). Nothing I can say is making a difference. I mean, I can't blame her for not wanting to stay, but she's sick. Flluid in lungs, CHF, pneumonia...nope, not having it. So we sign a release, they call the transport and we are waiting again....we get booted out of the room into a hallway (cuz we aren't being treated anymore) and my mom is complaining about waiting.

Today, she is still pale as a sheet, running a low grade fever (which also for my mom is a big thing), confused and sleepy. I'm not sure what to do. She's refusing medical treatment, but continuing dialysis and is still a full code (which means they will all measures to save her life if it comes to that). Her BNP was 420 which by what the ER nurse said isn't extremely high, but coupled with all of her other conditions, is just one more straw on the camel's back.

It's the weekend and all the people that I need to talk to are off so I am making a list of 1000 questions to ask on Monday.